A California attorney is facing a six-month suspension after the State Bar accused her of manipulating several images on her business Web site to suggest she had a lot of famous aquatances, including Kim Kardashian, Donald Trump and Alec Baldwin, Gawker reported on Friday.
Though the State Bar Court's decision is awaiting approval from the California Supreme Court, the recommendation from State Bar Court Judge Donald Miles attacks attorney Svitlana Sangary's "demonstrated lack of insight and her contemptuous conduct during these proceedings."
Miles also notes that Sangary generally refused to cooperate with the investigation. Miles also not that the lawyer violated the Bar's rules on deceptive advertising, according to the Washington Post.
Miles criticized the attorney's "failure to remove the deceptive images from her website, even after the State Bar brought this issue to her attention." The "publicity" page in question no longer appears as a link on the homepage of Sangary's business website.
Sangary had allegedly been told two years earlier that the photos on her site amounted to "deceptive advertising." She responded to the bar's accusations, The Recorder reports, with 148 pages of exhibits and includes what Miles describes as "a 16-page soliloquy with little or no rational connection to the charges at hand" that includes this bizarre passage about Natalie Portman.
"Also with regard to false statements and misleading advertisement, none other than Natalie Portman comes to mind. The online media extensively covers the controversy surrounding Natalie Portman's performance in the film Black Swan. The ballet dancer who performed in the Black Swan, Sarah Lane, has come forward to revel [sic] a 'cover up' and says that Natalie Portman's head was superimposed onto Sarah Lane's body, and that Natalie Portman lied...Despite the foregoing, Natalie Portman has won an Oscar for her performance in Black Swan."
